What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news and commentary column that is a little disoriented at the moment. But don’t worry, it will find its way. Oh, there’s a few Michael Bay-related stories to talk about. That’s so much better…

With the release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon happening this evening at 9pm or midnight or whatever, there’s been a lot of talk about Michael Bay, the most divisive man in cinema (at the moment). Today brought several must-reads, including GQ’s Oral history of Michael Bay exposé, which chronicles the life and times of the man who demands it all to be awesome. I also enjoyed this defense of Michael Bay piece by Jacob Hall at Movies.com. It’s a delightful look at the internal struggle movie-lovers face when confronted with pure, unfiltered awesome.

/Film has transcribed a segment of an interview with screenwriter Damon Lindelof describing how Ridley Scott’s Prometheus will connect with the Alien franchise. “I’ve always felt that really good prequels should be original movies.” That’s the money shot, right there. Also: “There is no suspense in inevitability.” This guy knows what’s up, that’s all I’m saying. The full set of quotes, as you might imagine, is a must-read.

Speaking of Alien and Alien-related things, Boing Boing has delivered unto the world this Alien wedding cake:

One of my favorite directors, Jean-Pierre Jeunet is working on a new film. It’s called Spivet, and “it follows a 12-year-old cartographer making a journey across America from Montana to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington,” blending fantasy and reality along the way. It would be his first English language film since 1997’s Alien Resurrection.

Bryan Cranston may join Ben Affleck’s Argo as one of the CIA agents who go in to rescue diplomats held hostage in Canada by pretending they are a documentary film crew from Hollywood. Cranston v. Iranians in Canada? I’d watch that.

Carey Mulligan may star in a sci-fi action film called Outback for Hunger Games director Gary Ross. It will be shot in Australia, as the title suggests. We don’t know anything about the plot. So please feel free to speculate in the comments section.

Somehow all of the best poster art for Super 8 went unused. There was that Drew Struzan-esque poster (or was is a real Struzan? I can’t remember.) Now there are two new one-sheets by artists Daniel Skubal and Veronica LaPage. I’ve included one below. The rest can be found over at First Showing.

Details magazine may have mistakenly labeled Shia LaBeouf as “Hollywood’s last bad boy” in this new interview, but they didn’t get anything wrong when it came time to get the Transformers star to open up. It’s a fascinating, fun read that might raise your level of respect for the goofy actor. He does claim to have nailed Megan Fox. Is that still impressive these days, or did the 90210 guy ruin it?

Design junkie Roger Tinch has found a few screenshots of what artist Vladimir Kudinov would do if he were the lead designer at IMDB. It’s a very visually pleasing, image-centric design that would be very cool. Sort of a stylish, alternate-universe version of the ultimate movie database. That said, users would hate it. Because internet people hate things that are awesome.

I really enjoy the way Movies.com writer David Ehrlich’s mind works. From a viewing of Green Lantern, he’s put together this wonderful Criterion-focused think piece about The Secret History of Superhero Movies. It’s a brilliant read.

A new service called MoviePass wants you to see unlimited movies in theater for as low as $50 per month. They’re looking to do for theaters what Netflix did for living rooms. It’s a rather brilliant idea, if they can pull it off. If you see one movie per week, you’re almost at $50 a month, depending on where you live. I know folks who see 2-3 movies per week. This, along with Hollywood’s interest in services like Groupon (see the success of The Lincoln Lawyer) might be the key to getting people back out to theaters. It sure beats more poor 3D post-conversions done to jack up ticket prices.

Paramount Pictures is close to boarding Darren Aronofsky’s Noah. Their deep pockets and desperation for a major event movie seem ripe for the picking as the Black Swan director prepares his “sprawling fantasy epic.”

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